Interesting to see these books compared. Worth adding that Britain has never been a "poor" nation, so much as massively unequal - i.e. the wealth is hoarded at the top. Savage's book is a classic, but it does tend to reinforce the narrative that the 70s were uniquely grim, when in fact they were the least unequal decade in UK history, with the working classes benefitting from the post-war settlement: social housing, NHS, free university, decent arts funding etc. This isn't to romanticise the decade of course - the racism, sexism and homophobia were appalling - but it was the last gasp of a social democracy that Thatcher and her heirs destroyed. So many interesting paths that weren't taken in the 70s - instead we got Thatcher and Reagan. Andy Beckett's When The Lights Went Out is well worth a read for a more rounded portrait of Britain in the 1970s.
I skimmed through Neu Klang and wish there was more meat to it than just disparate quotations assembled together (although I guess, this is basically the method of a lot of Can and Faust songs anyway). The best book on krautrock I've read is Jan Reetze's Times & Sounds: Germany’s Journey from Jazz and Pop to Krautrock and Beyond which goes far deeper into the economics and music in Germany leading up to krautrock than most other writers. Certainly way more than I could in my 33 1/3 book but I tried in shorter space. Highly recommend that Reetze book.
And to answer your question about Kraftwerk... their first (and disowned) records are absolutely krautrock through and through. Not just because of the Neu! connection, but the experimental spirit is in-line with the other krautrock bands.
Yeah, Ralf and Florian's refusal to let that early work exist in the world is very annoying, not just based on the material's artistic merit but based on the weird Autobahn-is-Year-Zero myth they're insisting on for themselves.
Yeah, agreed. Those first 3 albums are a very strange and wonderful trilogy in and of itself: pop-meets-Stockhausen. "Zuckruck" is a top 10 Kraftwerk song for me.
Thanks for the informative book reviews & excellent discussion (hope I can find the Jan Reetze book).
I think that the description of Tony Judt as “a small c conservative” is misleading. Judt is uncontroversially & most accurately assessed as a middle-of-the-road European social democrat before European social democracy took its ruinous neoliberal right-turn from the mid 1980s. He was certainly way more intellectually principled, consistent, & knowledgeable than many other SDs but that reflects both his impressive breadth of knowledge, his cultural, philosophical & historical dispositions & his intellectual path.
He became a social democrat after abandoning earlier attachments to both Zionism & Marxism & his criticisms of the trajectory of Israel & its roots in Zionism led to hostility & cancellation from no-limits defenders of Israel. Judt’s commitment was to universal human rights, not to Israel. His attackers were primarily committed to Israeli ethno-nationalism & they came from way, way right of Judt’s politics.
Your mention of Tony Judt’s attitudes to Margaret Thatcher is interesting. In line with Thatcher’s reactionary, destructive & militaristic political career, she was a fervid supporter of Israel (but continuing the policies of Labour governments that preceded her). However, in contrast to current political leaders from both major parties (Harris, Biden, Trump, Keir Starmer etc), - she was willing to publicly criticise Israeli policies & also took action against them in word & deed. So when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, Thatcher & other European leaders imposed a 12 year-long arms embargo against Israel. She also criticised Israel’s 1981 bombing of an Iraqi nuclear plant as a “grave breach of international law.” It doesn’t in any way excuse the rest of her political career & I don’t know if it had any relationship to Judt’s views on Thatcher.
Interesting to see these books compared. Worth adding that Britain has never been a "poor" nation, so much as massively unequal - i.e. the wealth is hoarded at the top. Savage's book is a classic, but it does tend to reinforce the narrative that the 70s were uniquely grim, when in fact they were the least unequal decade in UK history, with the working classes benefitting from the post-war settlement: social housing, NHS, free university, decent arts funding etc. This isn't to romanticise the decade of course - the racism, sexism and homophobia were appalling - but it was the last gasp of a social democracy that Thatcher and her heirs destroyed. So many interesting paths that weren't taken in the 70s - instead we got Thatcher and Reagan. Andy Beckett's When The Lights Went Out is well worth a read for a more rounded portrait of Britain in the 1970s.
I skimmed through Neu Klang and wish there was more meat to it than just disparate quotations assembled together (although I guess, this is basically the method of a lot of Can and Faust songs anyway). The best book on krautrock I've read is Jan Reetze's Times & Sounds: Germany’s Journey from Jazz and Pop to Krautrock and Beyond which goes far deeper into the economics and music in Germany leading up to krautrock than most other writers. Certainly way more than I could in my 33 1/3 book but I tried in shorter space. Highly recommend that Reetze book.
And to answer your question about Kraftwerk... their first (and disowned) records are absolutely krautrock through and through. Not just because of the Neu! connection, but the experimental spirit is in-line with the other krautrock bands.
Yeah, Ralf and Florian's refusal to let that early work exist in the world is very annoying, not just based on the material's artistic merit but based on the weird Autobahn-is-Year-Zero myth they're insisting on for themselves.
Yeah, agreed. Those first 3 albums are a very strange and wonderful trilogy in and of itself: pop-meets-Stockhausen. "Zuckruck" is a top 10 Kraftwerk song for me.
Hermes, Judt, and Savage? Now that's my kind of book club. Connect all dots. Thank you for all this.
Random recommendation: Stefan Aust's Baader-Meinhof book, which was adapted into an unusually good 2008 film
The movie WAS excellent; didn't know it was based on a specific book.
Thanks for the informative book reviews & excellent discussion (hope I can find the Jan Reetze book).
I think that the description of Tony Judt as “a small c conservative” is misleading. Judt is uncontroversially & most accurately assessed as a middle-of-the-road European social democrat before European social democracy took its ruinous neoliberal right-turn from the mid 1980s. He was certainly way more intellectually principled, consistent, & knowledgeable than many other SDs but that reflects both his impressive breadth of knowledge, his cultural, philosophical & historical dispositions & his intellectual path.
He became a social democrat after abandoning earlier attachments to both Zionism & Marxism & his criticisms of the trajectory of Israel & its roots in Zionism led to hostility & cancellation from no-limits defenders of Israel. Judt’s commitment was to universal human rights, not to Israel. His attackers were primarily committed to Israeli ethno-nationalism & they came from way, way right of Judt’s politics.
Your mention of Tony Judt’s attitudes to Margaret Thatcher is interesting. In line with Thatcher’s reactionary, destructive & militaristic political career, she was a fervid supporter of Israel (but continuing the policies of Labour governments that preceded her). However, in contrast to current political leaders from both major parties (Harris, Biden, Trump, Keir Starmer etc), - she was willing to publicly criticise Israeli policies & also took action against them in word & deed. So when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, Thatcher & other European leaders imposed a 12 year-long arms embargo against Israel. She also criticised Israel’s 1981 bombing of an Iraqi nuclear plant as a “grave breach of international law.” It doesn’t in any way excuse the rest of her political career & I don’t know if it had any relationship to Judt’s views on Thatcher.